{"id":87101,"date":"2020-07-31T20:41:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T02:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=87101"},"modified":"2020-08-03T22:00:12","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T04:00:12","slug":"of-ancient-plagues-and-really-really-ancient-extinctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/07\/of-ancient-plagues-and-really-really-ancient-extinctions.html","title":{"rendered":"Of ancient plagues and really, really ancient extinctions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Istanbul<\/a>
A satellite view of greater Istanbul, one of the most interesting places on Earth. At the bottom is the Sea of Marmara. It\u2019s connected by the waterway called the Bosporus to the Black Sea, which appears at the top of the photograph. (Approximately 56.927% of all Turkish restaurants outside of the motherland are called \u201cBosporus\u201d or \u201cBosphorus.\u201d\u00a0 The long inlet over toward the left is the famous Golden Horn. And the small peninsula between it and the Sea of Marmara is the site of the Old City, which was first called Byzantium, and then, when Constantine made it the capital of the Roman Empire, first \u201cNova Roma\u201d or \u201cNea Roma\u201d and then \u201cConstantinople.\u201d Finally, when the Ottoman Turks took it in 1453, it became \u201cIstanbul.\u201d
(NASA public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latest installment of my bi-weekly Deseret News<\/em> column went up yesterday.\u00a0 I\u2019m just really slow in posting a link to it.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the link:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow \u2018trivia,\u2019 \u2018alma mater,\u2019 \u2018liberal arts\u2019 and religion are tied to the medieval roots of modern higher education\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a bit of interesting science news, linking my deeply uninformed interest in astronomy with my remarkably ignorant enthusiasm for geology and palaeontology:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDid a supernova trigger the late Devonian extinction?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Think of the process as a sterilization, something of a cosmic hand sanitation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plagues are historically interesting, but not quite as fun to live through:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAncient trash heaps reveal the Plague of Justinian\u2019s economic toll: Israeli sites show how the plague impacted the fringes of the Byzantine Empire.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c[T]he Plague of Justinian: the bubonic plague\u2019s first-known visit to Europe, in 541 CE. The first wave of plague killed 20 percent of the population of Constantinople. Infection also devastated the trade port of Alexandria. Over the next 160 years, wave after wave of plague may have carried away up to half the population of the Byzantine Empire.\u00a0 \u2018Religious texts of the period suggest a heartfelt doomsday atmosphere.'\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, speaking of extinctions, let\u2019s talk for a moment about the coronavirus:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCoronavirus outbreak at a Georgia overnight camp infected over 200 kids and staff: Nearly half of children younger than 10 contracted the virus\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c[C]hildren of all ages are susceptible to [coronavirus] infection and, contrary to early reports, might play an important role in transmission.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018A huge experiment\u2019: How the world made so much progress on a Covid-19 vaccine so fast\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a relief to see some sanity on this subject:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMask-Wearing and the Common Good\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA popular heartburn medicine doesn\u2019t work as a COVID-19 antiviral: New findings don\u2019t rule out the chance the antacid might help in other ways\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 The latest installment of my bi-weekly Deseret News column went up yesterday.\u00a0 I\u2019m just really slow in posting a link to it.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the link: \u00a0 \u201cHow \u2018trivia,\u2019 \u2018alma mater,\u2019 \u2018liberal arts\u2019 and religion are tied to the medieval roots of modern higher education\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 Here\u2019s a bit of interesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14246,9264,13517,8031,13514,9108,5421,9101,9167,9104,9164],"class_list":["post-87101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bubonic","tag-contagion","tag-contagious","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-disease","tag-epidemic","tag-justinian","tag-pandemic","tag-plague"],"yoast_head":"\nOf ancient plagues and really, really 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